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Saturday, 25 April 2015

Here's my latest offering. As I said in Part 1 & Part 2 (and will no doubt repeat in Part 4, Part 5...): English grammar is kinda cool. And kinda crazy. But you know that. There are rules. And there are those who break them.And then again there are instances when something looks like it just can't possibly, ever, in a million years be correct English. Yet it is. Here are some of those. With more to follow.Enjoy, and comment or join our fabulous new Facebook Groups for English Teachers or English Students (or both) - details at the end of the post.

Grammatically Improbable (but correct) sentences:

1) 'I see', said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.2) One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas; how he got into my pyjamas, I'll never know.

3) James and Billy were asked to write about their weekend. Billy wrote 'I had some ice cream at the weekend.' James wrote 'I had had had some ice cream at the weekend'.James, while Billy had had had, had had had had. 'Had had', had been the correct answer.

4) 'I never said she stole my money' - if you place an emphasis on one word at a time it changes the meaning, I never said she stole my money, I never said she stole my money, I never said she stole my money, etc.5) Have you ever noticed that read rhymes with lead, and read rhymes with lead?Also read and lead don't rhyme. Neither do read and lead!

Back again with another batch, hot off the press! As I said in Part 1:(and will no doubt repeat in Part 3, Part 4, Part 5...): English grammar is kinda cool. And kinda crazy. But you know that. There are rules. And there are those who break them.And then again there are instances when something looks like it just can't possibly, ever, in a million years be correct English. Yet it is. Here are some of those. With more to follow.Enjoy, and comment or join our fabulous new Facebook Groups for English Teachers or English Students (or both) - details at the end of the post.

More Grammatically Improbable (but correct) Sentences:

1) "You have just begun reading the sentence you have just finished reading."2) "One-one was a race horse. Two-two was one too. One-one won one race. Two-two won one too."

3) "The horse raced past the barn fell."

4) "I sometimes read read as read, when it's supposed to be read as read."5) "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."Buffalo! It's a noun! It's a city! It's a verb (meaning 'to intimidate')! According to the original image I saw it in: 'It plays on reduced relative clauses, different part-of-speech readings of the same word, and center embedding, all in the same sentence. Stare at it until you get the following meaning: 'Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community, also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.' I'm sure they're right!

Friday, 24 April 2015

English grammar is kinda cool. And kinda crazy. But you know that. There are rules. And there are those who break them.And then again there are instances when something looks like it just can't possibly, ever, in a million years be correct English. Yet it is. Here are some of those. With more to follow.Enjoy, and comment or join our fabulous new Facebook Groups for English Teachers or English Students (or both) - details at the end of the post. Oh, and check out Part 2, Part 3 and probably many more..! English is that crazy...

Grammatically Improbable (but correct) sentences:

1) "All the faith he had had had had no effect on his life."2) "Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?"

3) "The old man the boats."

4) "Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana."5) "Whether the weather be fine Or whether the weather be not Whether the weather be cold Or whether the weather be hot We'll weather the weather Whatever the weather Whether we like it or not."

Friday, 4 October 2013

The following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the mysterious language of science and medicine. These special phrases are also applicable to anyone working on a PhD dissertation or academic paper anywhere!